'I should tell you,' he said, 'that I am impressed that you made it this far. I'm not easy to outrun, but you must already know that by now.'
'The threat of having one's soul stolen tends to quicken one's feet,' she hissed.
He removed his glove and placed his hand on her cheek, perhaps to keep her from turning from him in fear, though she wasn't about to grant him that. Her gaze did not waver from his masked face.
Unimpressed, he ignored her bravado and closed his eyes, speaking in a language that she didn't recognize. It wasn't a very harsh-sounding phrase, but she could tell it wasn't meant for her benefit. She contemplated an attempt to pry her ankle from its snare, but found even a slight shift impossible.
He abruptly stopped, seemingly mid-word, though there was no way she could tell for sure, and sat upright to slide the hood back and remove his helmet, revealing a black shirt below his breastplate that rose and clung to his neck. His jaw was strong, his profile defined. But the look in his eyes as they grew ordinary brown in color, the expression, was what struck her — he was not just handsome, but known somehow. It made her chest ache.
An acrid thought crossed her mind that the odd emotional reaction he was invoking in her was somehow related to the Erubians' rumored power to steal a human's soul.
'You are not human,' he murmured, scowling in an unsuccessful attempt to conceal his shock.
'Of course I'm human,' she said, 'do you not see me bleeding?'
'Adorians also bleed. Why are you here?'
She assumed that it was a rhetorical question, but before either of them could speak again, a cry pierced close to where they'd entered the woods.
Garren glanced back toward the sound of the Morior's cry, visions of the Laionai's justice filling his mind. He'd seen death come slowly by their hands for much lesser sins than this.
'If I am what you say I am, then I'm your mortal enemy, am I not?' When the girl spoke, there was acid in her words and none of the timidity or outright dread he had come to expect from others in his presence.
He turned back to her with narrowed eyes, his lips twisted in an incredulous smirk, and laughed below his breath before he could speak. He couldn't begin to imagine her reason for antagonizing him, especially considering what she was. 'You don't fear me?' She started to answer him but he cut her off. 'Before you speak, perhaps you should know to whom you are speaking.'
'I don't care who you are. Your arrival has told me enough of your allegiance, that's all I need to know.'
He really wasn't certain what to say. Before he could reply, the Morior could be heard coming closer and he saw, finally, fear in her eyes. He expected to be pleased by it; instead, all sound left his head and his sight blurred. His gut felt uneasy.
She lifted her gaze to the sky above them, took a deep breath, and with no small portion of reluctance, acknowledged her defeat by gracing him with a faint smile. It wasn't sarcastic. All traces of amusement had fled her winsome features. What it was, however, was so much worse; she'd resigned herself to leave this world on her own terms regardless of the circumstances. Her expression was perhaps the sincerest he'd ever seen.
He lowered his eyes, weighing his decision. 'Can you walk at all?' The words came out as a forced whisper from his lips.
She looked at him, dumbfounded. 'You intend for me to walk to my execution? I think not. If they want me, they'll have to come for me here.'
He exhaled sharply as he leaned down and lifted her with one arm while reaching to free her ankle with the other. As she struggled against him, he placed a finger over her mouth to silence her and motioned toward the thickest underbrush. He let his fingers slide beneath her chin as he whispered, 'Go there, and do not move until nightfall. We'll be gone by then. Do you understand me? Do not move until then.'
She nodded, remaining still and wordless as he picked up his sword. As he rose, his eyes met hers again and lingered warmly for a moment before cooling. He tightened his jaw, stunned by his own actions. Without thinking, he shrugged the cloak from his shoulders and shoved it into her hands.
'Go,' he whispered, then turned back and disappeared into the thicket.
Just before he emerged on the other side, Garren took his sword and slid it quickly across the gap in the armor at his left leg, blood spilling onto the metal and down onto the cuff of his boot. He clenched his teeth, sucking in air as the stinging subsided, and walked into the clearing.
Tadraem approached with a wry smile on his face, Garren's Dragee cantering beside his own. 'My Lord, tell me that you haven't met your match in such a tiny opponent.'
Garren took the reins from him and mounted the Dragee, repositioning his helmet as soon as he was seated. 'She paid for it with her life,' he growled.
'No matter, my liege, one less soul will make little difference to our spoils.'
'Let us pray that the Laionai and her most Holy will be pleased,' Garren said it just loud enough for Tadraem to hear it. He hoped his old mentor, now his second in command, hadn't detected the hitch in his voice.
CHAPTER TWO
The woods were deep and still. Ariana had watched the color of the sky progress from bright blue to a bruised and bitter color and finally saw the sun sink below the tops of the trees. It felt like hours, but she couldn't be sure how much time had passed since darkness had fallen. She tucked her arms against her chest, her back against the base of a tree. It was ironic how frightened of this place she'd been as a child; now the recesses and alcoves felt somewhat comforting.
The moon was still a night away from being full, a thin sliver perceptibly missing from its side. It peered back at her from its place in the sky, sending pale rays like silk threads through the forest. Gingerly moving branches aside, her walk back to the village was almost reverent, as if leaving nothing wounded by her presence would somehow save those she had been unable to.
The place she'd taken for granted for years grew new form. The trampled leaves, twigs, and roots seemed foreign to her, rolling from under the overgrowth and snaking along the forest floor to trip her already unsure footing. She knew better than to imbue inanimate objects with hostility, but her gut recoiled at the mere whisper of a thought related to what had befallen her morning. She went back to cursing the wild, unkempt underbrush.
Gregor is never going to hear the end of this when I get a hold of him. This should have been clear-cut months ago.
The absurdity of her thoughts hit her and made her throat dry. A voice murmured in her mind that she would never have the chance to throttle Gregor properly for his negligence.
There is no sound, nothing, save your own fettered breathing. There is nothing left.
She almost tripped on it. Absently, she picked up her satchel from where she had thrown it to the ground in dismount and slung it over one shoulder.
Listen… what do you hear?
She shook her head against the question. She couldn't let herself think this way, she had no reason to. Then, her internal ramblings halted with her breathing and any threadbare hope she'd held that Palingard had in any way been spared. She crossed over the densest part of the forest to see clearly what she had been hearing, and ignoring, for a few paces…
The flames danced and licked angrily at the night air, spiraling upwards toward the waxing moon. Any trace of the festival decor was long gone, and scant pillars remained where modest cottages had once speckled the clearing. Those on the outskirts smoldered, while those in the center remained viciously ablaze. There were no survivors; no one picking up the remnants to begin again, no weeping and mourning, no scurrying of animals to find new shelter. Her vision blurred, her eyes glossed over with unshed tears. Her thoughts were as barren as the devastation before her.
What she could see beyond the destruction was the scene she had once tried so hard to forget, the one she had been clinging to anew with hope. As if on top of what was real and in front of her, she saw Palingard as it was fifteen years past. The village was reeling from the aftermath of the last siege — shouts of pain and grief heard in
